Etienne Innovation The Future of Air Logistics and Network

Etienne Innovation Sdn. Bhd. (Etienne) is the Malaysian pioneer in the design and development of Heavy-lift Multicopters. Etienne is currently developing a one-of-a-kind, clean transportation mode in the form of a Heavy-lift Multicopter. Our Advanced Air Mobility Multicopter; the ETN200 series, is a future transport, featuring and all-electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) and advanced flight capabilities.

This multicopter aircraft is designed to be able to carry 200 kg of goods and travel up to 45 km on a single charge. It will provide an efficient and sustainable mode of transport for logistic companies, consumer-based inner-city transportation companies, local authorities & government enforcers, and airlines. This aircraft is developed based on three underlying pillars: advanced aerial vehicle technology, low-impact ground infrastructure, and innovative model of operations.

Summary

Etienne is the Malaysian pioneer in the design and development of Heavy-lift Multicopter. Our Innovative eVTOL, Air Mobility (IAM) Multicopter; ETN200-XA, is a future transport aircraft, which will be flying between existing airports, rural locations, and new inner-city bases.

Etienne has the undeniable opportunity to be a leader in the IAM development in the South-east Asia region. Etienne wants to establish our position as an end-to-end designer and producer of commercial Multicopter aircrafts. We also envision ourselves as provider of advanced and efficient air transportation solutions to customers through our ETN200 series aircraft. IAM is a high-tech, high-skill industry with enormous export potential. This will promote hundreds of jobs in the aerospace sector and foster business opportunities in Malaysia and the region – the opportunity is vast!

Etienne will start a fundraising campaign offering equity up to 10% through an Equity Crowdfunding Campaign (ECF) at pithchIN.my. The funds raised will be used for the development of the commercial ETN200-XA aircraft prototype. The campaign will be launched soon and will be open for investment for a limited period of time. Be part of Etienne, and be the pioneer of IAM in Malaysia.

Problem 

An overarching problem that is likely to worsen in the foreseeable future is rapid urbanization, which brings constant rise in traffic congestion, cost of infrastructure in cities, and huge economic losses. The challenge of traffic congestion is a perennial issue for cities in Malaysia and all over the world.. Economic expansion, increased urbanization, the rise of ride-hailing services and e-commerce, underinvestment in infrastructure and mixed results from various policies and programs are seen as the primary trends that have exacerbated urban congestion in recent years. As a result, cities are increasingly troubled by excessive pollutions (air and noise) and are burdened by the ever-increasing cost of ground-based facilities. The World Bank, Malaysia Economic Monitor, June 2020 - Transforming Urban Transport, reported that Malaysians are estimated to waste about 1 million hours annually due to traffic congestion. This translates to a total of RM 10–20 billion annually and cannot be ignored.

Urban congestion produces traffic jams that affect not only commuter drivers, but also pedestrians that find their path blocked by an excessive number of polluting vehicles. In this regard, the economic costs of congestion are very high and painful. Furthermore, polluting emissions are the main cause of the death of millions of people a year around the world and, with traffic being one of the main causes. WHO warns that more than 90% of the population lives in urban cities with harmful air quality and that air pollution around the world causes 3 million premature deaths every year. Innovative and smart solutions are needed, or cities will risk seeing these detriments beginning to outweigh scale benefits, and eventually lead to deterioration in the quality of life and loss of economic dynamisms.

Solution 

This trend that exacerbates congestion in urban areas shows no signs of weakening, and most cities have not yet fully articulated the necessary steps they’ll need to take to improve. A proactive step to minimizing congestion must be taken by rethinking our approach to mobility and making cities far more liveable, with convenient, clean, and cost-effective mobility solutions. Etienne believes that the solution lies in the sky – and this will revolutionize the way we will perceive mobility. We expect multiple use cases within IAM such as inter- and intracity transport of passengers and goods, special missions such as air ambulance, emergency supply delivery, or search and rescue support.

Our ETN200-XA is developed by local in-house experts will form of transport that makes passenger and cargo missions viable to and from locations that hitherto impractical, unsafe or uneconomical to be served by flight.

Product 

Etienne Innovation is developing a new one-of-a-kind clean transportation mode in the form of a Heavy-lift Multicopter. Our 3-dimensional flying Multicopter (code-named ETN200-XA) is an aircraft that will be a smarter and more efficient solution to goods delivery in urban areas. ETN200-XA is designed to be able to carry 200 kg of goods and travel up to 45 km on a single charge. It is designed and developed based on three main pillars; advanced aerial vehicle technology, low-impact ground infrastructure, and an innovative model of operations.

 

 

Traction 

Key milestones:

2020 - 2021:

• 1st Prototype: C-Drone design and development (UTHM-KPT collaboration).

September 2021:

• C-Drone project completed. Awarded “ Heaviest Load Lifted by Drone (200kg)” by Malaysia book of records.

November 2021:

• Company founded.

2022: Company Setup

2023: Pre-seed & Seed Stage 

(Q1) Aircraft Type-certification Planning & Design

• Detailed Design Team
• Design Studio/Workshop Set-up
• Conceptual Design
• Performance Simulation
• Mapping & Planning Aircraft Functions with EASA Certification Requirement

(Q2) Component Performance Testing

• Dynamic System Analysis
• Test Jig Design & Fabrication
• Equipment Performance Verification
• Functionality Test
• Subsystem Assembly

2024: Series A

Type Certificate MVP Assembly & Production 

• Flight Controller Development
• System Integration & Assembly
• Integrated System Functionality Test
• Parameter Tuning
• Indoor Hover Flight Test

2025 - 2026: Series B

Aircraft Type-certification

• Navigation System Test
• Outdoor Hover Flight Test
• Contingency Flight Test
• Airworthiness SC-VTOL Type Certification Process Validation

Commercial Variant Production

• Proof of Concept Projects
• Sub-scale Production
• Design Practicality Evaluation
• Operational Certification
• Production Certification

2027 - onwards: Series C

Business Operation & Commercialisation

• Roll-out and Adoption
• Scaled Manufacturing
• Customer Acquisition
• Customize/OEM Solutions
• Providing Logistics as a Service (LaaS)
• Integrated Platform Development

Customers

The market for UAM is growing in multiple folds as it can be used for various operations such as ground traffic assessment, transportation of goods, medical evacuations, rescuing, and transport of passengers.

ETN200-XA series grants consumers access to on-demand air mobility, goods delivery, and emergency services through an integrated and connected multimodal transportation network. ETN200-XA can serve a variety of built environments; urban, suburban, and rural, and includes local use cases of about a 45 km radius in rural or urban areas, ETN200-XA can provide an efficient and sustainable mode of air transport for logistics companies for consumer-based inner-city transportation companies, local authorities & government enforcers, and airlines.

Transport and Logistic Company - Goods and parcel delivery

Government Agencies - Ground traffic assessment, security assessment, weather monitoring, emergency services, search and rescue

Airlines - Cargo and goods delivery

Military - Goods delivery, ground assessment, security monitoring

Agriculture - Crop monitoring, ground mapping, livestock monitoring, agriculture spaying

Building/Construction/Maintenance - Mapping and surveys, equipment delivery and tracking, remote monitoring, security surveillance

Business Model 

Etienne will adopt the vertical integration business strategy.

Our initial plan is to focus on the key technologies for the development of the aircraft, ETN200-XA and expand to become vertically integrated through offerings of logistics and transport services directly to customers.

This vertical integration will allow Etienne to expand geographically by adding distribution centers in new areas or by acquiring a new brand business strategy in a way that Etienne is not just producing aircraft for sale and receiving one-time revenues, but instead generating recurring revenues over the lifespan of ETN200-XA with corresponding benefits to contribution margin. Instead of relying on external suppliers, Etienne strives to bring processes in-house to have better control over the production process.

Profit-per-aircraft unit economics create a virtuous cycle where customer adoption benefits both the customer and Etienne.

Product:

1. ETN200-XA: Fully Autonomous Multicopter (Goods/Cargo delivery)
2. ETN200-X: Multi-use, Scalable variants of ETN200 multi-copter.

Services:

1. Customers will book on-demand air transport services directly through a dedicated app or a partner app like Grab.
2. Etienne will work directly with customers (companies/agencies/institutions) on customized scheduling and transportation services platforms for their operational needs.

Market 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM), the subpart of IAM, tends to grow in the urban transportation market. The reason is clear since autonomous eVTOLs provide the best-suited solutions for cargo-based transportation and passenger commutation and is expected to be adopted for intercity transportation.

A number of companies have announced plans to launch passenger Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) services using VTOL and other novel aircraft designs. A few planned services include:

(1) Volocopter in Singapore in 2021;

(2) EHang in Linz, Austria

(3) Vertical Aerospace in London in 2022;

(4) Joby Aviation in 2024

(5) Lilium in Orlando, Munich, Nürnberg,

Other companies with unannounced launch timelines include Archer, Wisk, and many more. Additionally, a number of automakers have announced investments in AAM, including Aston Martin, Audi, Daimler, Geely, General Motors, Hyundai, Porsche, Stellantis, and Toyota.

Several market studies forecast that AAM passenger and emergency services will begin to transition to VTOL and eVTOL aircraft in the mid to late 2020s. Broadly, these market studies estimate a passenger mobility market of 2.8 to 4 billion USD by 2030, and a global AAM market potential of 74 to 641 billion USD in 2035.

Another study estimates a market potential of 318 billion USD across 74 cities worldwide in 2040.

Major Potential Market

The European market is expected to grow at the highest rate within the forecast time period as countries in the region, like France and Germany, are working hard toward the procurement of technologically advanced eVTOLs for commercial-based operations. Additionally, the major advancements in the growing economies related to manufacturing capabilities eventually drive market growth.

Asia-Pacific is emerging as a key testbed and market for new segments of UAM, with developers eyeing governments and customers in the region as likely early adopters of eVTOL technology. Part of the reason is that the area is home to some of the globe’s most gridlocked cities.

A 2020 study by management consultancy, Roland Berger forecasts more than 160,000 small, remotely-piloted passenger aircraft will be in service in congested metropolitan areas around the world by 2050. By then, it predicts 70% of humans will live within these conurbations–from 50% today–with population growth expected to outstrip ground transportation capacity by over a third.

Etienne aims to be a major leader in the South East Asia region for the development of IAM and will offer our commercialized services by the year of 2027.

Competition 

1. Local non-direct competitor :

-Aerodyne Group (Drone services)

2. International direct competitor (Heavy Lifter Unmanned Aircraft):

-Volocopter, EHang

3. International direct competitor (Unmanned Passenger Aircraft):

-Joby, Archer, Lilium, Vertical Aerospace

Funding 

Fundraising targets:

1. Pre-seed: MYR 500,000
2. Seed: MYR 5,000,000
3. Series A: MYR 10,000,000
4. Series B: MYR 25,000,000
5. Series C: MYR 50,000,000

Subsequent use and application of the proceeds:

1. Pre-seed: Design team, permanent staff salaries, office equipment and tools, workshop set-up, aircraft prototype and conceptual design work.
2. Seed: Staffing, Staff allowances, design feasibility study, advance testing, indoor controlled flight test.
3. Series  A: Staffing, aircraft assembly, production, performance evaluation, design updates, certifications and compliance
4. Series B: Operational flight test, business proof of concepts, customer platform development, demonstration for compliance, fully autonomous system development.
5. Series C: Production and manufacturing facilities, production certification.

The proposed time frame for such utilization:

1. Pre-seed: 3 month
2. Seed: 6 month
3. Series A: 1 year
4. Series B 1 year
5. Series C: 6 month

Vision

To become the leading advanced air logistic services and network provider in the region and to be at the frontier of technology for autonomous multicopter.

The Company 

Date of incorporation:	11 October 2021
Registration number:	1433581-V
Date of commencement of business:	11 October 2021
History of business from the date of incorporation	Conducted parametric studies on the ETN200 design work
Group and shareholding structure	Mohd Aifaa bin Mohd Ariff (70%), Wan Saiful-Islam bin Wan Salim (10%), Sofia Najwa binti Ramli (10%), Abdul Zaki bin Abd Wahid (10%)

Founders 

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 34

Profession: Power system analyst, Electrical propulsion system design, Flight control system design.

Qualification: Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London.

Past experiences: Heavy-lift propulsion system team leader for CDrone project, Visiting Researcher at Deftech US SdnBhd, Visiting Research Scholar at Imperial College London and Virginia Tech Institute.

 

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 47

Profession: Senior lecturer and fluid dynamic experts

Qualification: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London

Past experiences: Principal researcher at Centre for Energy and Industrial Environment Studies (CEIES), C-Drone project team-member, Head of CFD Laboratory UTHM, Project Leader for Proton DRB University Concept Car Challenge 2018 and Perodua Eco-Challenge, Academic visitor to Imperial College London, Researcher for the ULTRABOOST demonstrator engine project (funded by the Technological Strategy Board UK and led by Jaguar-Land Rover).

 

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 44

Profession: Senior lecturer and business expert.

Qualification: Master in Architectural Engineering, Oita University, Japan.

Past experiences: Director at P2 Digital Holdings Sdn. Bhd., Managing Director at Flexcility System Sdn. Bhd.

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 35

Profession: Senior lecturer and information security expert.

Qualification: Ph.D. in Information Security, UTEM.

Past experiences: ISO 9001: 2015 Coordinator and Auditor, Certified Information Security Management System Auditor.

Team 

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 26

Profession:  Project manager for ETN200-XA development, in-charged of electrical propulsion system design and rapid prototyping expert. 

Qualification: B.Eng (Hons) in Electrical, UTHM. 

Past experiences: Assistant engineer for heavy-lift propulsion system design for the CDrone project (power plant).

Certified Technical Training: Aircraft Fundamentals and Advanced.

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 28

Profession: Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) Pilot, control system, and communication system engineer. 

Qualification: M.Eng. in Electrical, UTHM.

Past experiences: CDrone pilot, assistant engineer for CDrone project (control system and communication system).

Certified Technical Training: Controller Area Network (CAN) - Real-Time Systems Design.

 

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 26

Profession: Full-time mechanical engineering student at UTHM. 

Qualification: B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical, UTHM (Final Year), Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional in Mechanical Design (CSWP), Daussalt Systemes (2022).

Certified Technical Training: Aircraft Structure.

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 25

Profession: Full-time mechanical engineering student at UTHM. 

Qualification: B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical, UTHM (Final Year), Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional in Mechanical Design (CSWP), Daussalt Systemes (2022).

Certified Technical Training:  Siemens NX - Essential Training, Siemens NX - Advanced Sketch Training.

 

Nationality: Malaysia

Age: 24

Profession: Full-time mechanical engineering student at UTHM. 

Qualification: B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical, UTHM (Final Year), Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional in Mechanical Design (CSWP), Daussalt Systemes (2022).

Certified Technical Qualifications: Siemens NX - Advanced Assembly Training